Squatting

Squatting is when people move into a building or onto land they do not own. They do not pay rent or have legal permission to be there. Most people squat to find a place to live. This often happens when people are poor or homeless. They look for empty or abandoned buildings to use as homes.

Sometimes, people use these spaces for other things. They might turn a building into a café or a shop. Some groups use squats as social centres for their community. These places can even host pirate radio stations.

In many parts of the world, squatting leads to large settlements. In developing countries, these are often called slums or shanty towns. These areas are usually built on the edges of big cities. People build their own houses without permission from landowners. These homes often lack basic things like water or electricity.

In Brazil, these areas are known as favelas. In Argentina, they are called villa miseria. In Peru, people call them pueblos jóvenes. In Guatemala and Uruguay, they are known as asentamientos irregulares.

History shows that squatting has many different roots. Some early groups used a method called "silent move-outs." This meant leaving a home without telling the landlord. They would then stop paying rent. In the 1960s and 1970s, new movements began in Europe. People created free spaces in Denmark and the Netherlands. They also made social centres in Italy.

In the United States and England, some people squat to protest. They might do this to save a building from being torn down. In Spain and the US, many new squats appeared after the 2008 financial crisis.

Different countries have many different numbers of squatters. In the late 1970s, England and Wales had about 50,000 squatters. In Nigeria, nearly 70 percent of people in Lagos lived in slums in 1995. In South Africa, 7.7 million people lived in informal settlements in the mid-1990s. By 2004, that number grew to 15 million people.

In Sudan, there were about 200,000 squatters in Khartoum by 2015. In Liberia, the West Point area in Monrovia holds between 29,500 and 75,000 people. These numbers show how common this way of living can be.

People have very different views about squatting. Some say it is a way to protest unfairness. An author named Colin Ward even called it the oldest way to hold land. He believed that the Earth should not be treated like a product. Other people, like police official Sue Williams, disagree. She says squatting can cause trouble for neighbors. It can also lead to criminal activities.

In some places, there is a rule called adverse possession. This allows someone to gain ownership of land after living there for a long time. This rule exists in England and the United States. Whether squatting is seen as good or bad often depends on local laws.